Africa: Eye on the ballot as Nigeria, nine others hold polls

Africa: Eye on the ballot as Nigeria, nine others hold polls

By Akpo Ometan

All eyes are trained on the ballots in Africa as Nigeria, Gabon, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Somaliland, Sudan, and Zimbabwe are poised to hold presidential elections this year.

Nigeria’s big event is understandably taking a lot of the shine as it is coming across already as a too-close-to-call contest. Expected to produce a successor to outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari, the contest is being interpreted by pundits as being essentially a three-horse race involving Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress and Peter Obi of Labour Party.

Underscoring the fact that the polls would not be a pushover, only this week, two notable Nigerians, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Niger Delta leader, Chief E.K Clark endorsed the hitherto less fancied candidate of the Labour Party, describing him as a shade better than the others.

Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa and has had a string of elections since the return to civil rule that followed upon the death of the maximum dictator, General Sani Abacha in 1998.

Labour Party candidate, Mr Peter Obi